Words: 3851
Through the Cutbacks Entertainment division and Hear Music brand, the company also arrests books, music, and film. Many of the company’s products are seasonal or specific to the locality Of the store. Cutbacks-brand ice cream and coffee are also offered at grocery stores. From Cutbacks’ founding In later forms in Seattle as a local coffee bean roaster and retailer, the company has expanded rapidly. In the 1 sass, Cutbacks was opening a new store every workday, a pace that continued into the sass.
The first store outside the United States or Canada opened in the mid-‘ass, and overseas stores now constitute almost one third of Cutbacks’ stores. [4] The company planned to pen a net of 900 new stores outside of the United States in 200915] but has announced 900 store closures in the United States since 2008. Cutbacks has been a target of protests on issues such as fair-trade policies, labor relations, environmental impact, political views, and anti-competitive practices. Human Resource Planning is the process of anticipating and carrying out the movement of people into within and out of the organization.
Human resources planning is done to achieve the optimum use of human resources and to have the correct number and types of employees needed to meet organizational goals. Sees of HARP – Improve the utilization of human resources. – Match human resource related activities and future organizations objectives effectively. – Achieve economies in hiring new workers. – Coordination between various HER programs such a employment equity plan and hiring needs. Importance of HARP – Ensures optimum use of manpower. (Woman, too nowadays? – Forecast future requirements. – Help determine recruitment/ induction level. – TO anticipate redundancies/ surpluses – To determine training levels and works. – Know the cost of manpower if there is a new project is being taken up. HER planning and analysis activities have several facets. Through HER planning,managers attempt to anticipate forces that will influence the future supply of and demand for employees. Having adequate human resource information systems (HAIR) to provide accurate and timely information for HER planning is crucial.
The importance of human resources in organizational competitiveness must be addressed as well. As part of maintaining organizational competitiveness, HER analysis and assessment of HER effectiveness must occur. The internationalization of organizations has resulted in greater emphasis on global HER management. HER Planning Process DEVELOPING THE HER PLAN In planning for human resources, an organization must consider the allocation of people to jobs over long periods of time-??not just for the next month or even the next year.
This allocation requires knowledge of any foreseen expansions Or reductions in operations and any technological changes that may affect the organization. On the basis of such analyses, plans can be made for shifting employees within the organization, laying off or otherwise cutting back the number of employees, or retraining present employees. Factors to consider include the current level of employee knowledge, skills, and abilities in an organization and the expected vacancies resulting from retirement, promotion, transfer, sick leave,or discharge.
I n summary, the HER plan provides a road map for the future, identifying where employees are likely to be obtained, when employees will be needed, and what training and development employees must have. Hence, In simple sense, the different HER activities must be aligned with the general business strategy, as well as the overall HER strategy, in order to support business goals. EVALUATING HER PLANNING If HER planning is done well, the following benefits should result: per management has a better view of the human resource dimensions of business decisions.
HER costs may be lower because management can anticipate imbalances before they become unmanageable and expensive. More time is available to locate talent because needs are anticipated and identified before the actual staffing is required. Better opportunities exist to include women and minority groups in future growth plans. Development Of managers can be better planned. 1 . Scanning the External Environment At the heart of strategic planning is the knowledge gained from scanning the external environment for changes. Environmental scanning is the process of studying the environment of the organization to pinpoint opportunities and threats.
Scanning especially affects HER planning because each organization must draw from the same labor market that supplies all other employers. Indeed, one measure of organizational effectiveness is the ability of an organization to compete for a sufficient supply of human resources with the appropriate capabilities. 2. Government Influences A major element that affects labor supply is the government. Today, managers are confronted with an expanding and often bewildering array of overspent rules as regulation of HER activities has steadily increased.
As a result, HER planning must be done by individuals who understand the legal requirements of various government regulations. Hence, Government trade policies and restrictions can affect HER planning. 3. Economic Conditions The general business cycle of recessions and booms also affects HER planning. Such factors as interest rates, inflation, and economic growth help determine the availability of workers and figure into organizational plans and objectives. Decisions on wages, overtime, and hiring or laying off workers all hinge on economic conditions. . Geographic and Competitive Concerns Employers must consider the following geographic and competitive concerns in making HER plans: Net migration into the area Other employers in the area Employee resistance to geographic relocation Direct competitors in the area Impact of international competition on the area 5. Workforce Composition and Work Patterns Changes in the composition of the workforce, combined with the use of varied work patterns, have created workplaces and organizations that are very different from those of a decade ago.
As noted in Chapter 1, anemographic shifts have resulted in greater workforce diversity. Many organizations are addressing concerns about having sufficient workers with the necessary capabilities, and have turned to such sources as welfare-to- work programs. The use Of outsourcing and contingent workers also must be considered as part of human resource planning. ALTERNATIVE WORK SCHEDULES The traditional work schedule, in which employees work full time, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week at the employer’s place of operations, is in transition.
Organizations have been experimenting with many different possibilities for hanged: the 4-day, 40-hour week; the 4-day, 32-hour week; the 3-day week; and flexible scheduling. Many employers have adopted some flexibility in work schedules and locations. Changes of this nature must be considered in HER planning. These alternative work schedules allow organizations to make better use of workers by matching work demands to work hours. Workers also are better able to balance their work and family responsibilities. One type of schedule redesign is flextime, in which employees work a stumble of hours per day but vary starting and ending times.
ALTERNATIVE WORK ARRANGEMENTS A growing number of employers are allowing workers to use widely different working arrangements. Some employees work partly at home and partly at an Office, and share office Space with Other “office nomads. ” The shift to such arrangements means that work is done anywhere, anytime, and that people are judged more on results than on “putting in time. ” Greater trust, less direct supervision, and more self-scheduling are all job characteristics of those with virtual offices and other less traditional arrangements.
COMPONENTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CAPABILITIES INVENTORY This inventory of organizational capabilities often consists of: Individual employee demographics (age, length of service in the organization, time in present job) Individual career progression (jobs held, time in each job, promotions or other job changes, pay rates) Individual performance data (work accomplishment, growth in skills) These three types of information can be expanded to include: Education and training Recruitment at Cutbacks Cutbacks is a specialist coffee house which originated in Seattle.
Today the organization has over 15,000 outlets worldwide. It sells a range of hot and cold drinks, food items and accessories. Its philosophy is to create an experience for the customer and a human connection. With the introduction Of the Cutbacks Card purchasing drinks, food etc. From the outlets has now been made a lot easier. Customers can top up their cards and use them as a method of payment. Cutbacks products are also available from supermarkets.
Some of the range includes packets of coffee, coffee makers, gift sets etc. Cutbacks is constantly innovating its offer to keep up to date with competition from McDonald’s, Cafe Nero, Costa Coffee etc. You are required to answer the following questions making reference to Cutbacks. Task 1 – Recruitment, Selection and Retention A Barista at Cutbacks must have a number of personal characteristics and skills which will enable them to carry out their role.
These skills and characteristics are likely to include friendliness, attention to detail, a commitment to providing customer service and an ability to work in a fast- paced environment. Pliable and Corrode indicate that successful resounding is as much to do with good organizational fit as it is to do with HARM best practice, and therefore the first stage of recruitment should be to undertake a role or person specification in order to establish the skills and attributes necessary for the role.
Phillips and Gully suggest that successful recruitment, selection and retention should also be aligned to the strategic objectives of the firm and therefore care and consideration should be given to the most suitable recruitment and selection methods in order to ensure they will attract the best potential candidates and also that the entire process will result in long term employee retention. Britton and Gold state that “recruitment is the process of generating a pool of capable people to apply for employment to an organization.
Selection is the process by which managers and others use specific instruments to hose from a pool of applicants a person or persons more likely to succeed in the job(s), given management goals and legal requirements”. Accordingly, Darlington et al observe that there are a number of alternative recruitment and selection strategies including interview, assessment centre, and psychological testing.
Each has its own advantages and disadvantages and therefore it is not uncommon for multiple approaches to be used in combination depending on the seniority of the role in question. However, before recruitment and selection can commence it is necessary to determine a suitable specification for the role. Thus the suggested specification for a Barista at Cutbacks is given below:- Figure 1: Personal Specification Template for a Barista at Cutbacks (Source, Author) Requirement Essential or Desirable?
Qualifications / Education / Training: No essential qualifications required, food safety or food hygiene would be desirable Desirable Experience: Customer service, food handling, retail Essential Knowledge: Some retail knowledge would be desirable, along with a knowledge of various coffees Desirable Skills & Competencies: attention to detail; ability to work in a high pressure environment, customer-centric Essential
Personal Attributes: open & friendly, keen to provide an exceptional customer experience Essential Other: Prepared to go the extra mile to offer exceptional service and use own initiative when necessary in order to promote the brand and concept Desirable Find out more from I-J Essays here: http://www. Essays. Com/services/ example-essays/ business/recruitment-cutbacks. PH#expectation The specification is not exhaustive and further attributes may be considered such as an ability to communicate in more than one language, especially if the location of the outlet is such that overseas tourists regularly visit (egg parts of
London). The most cost-effective form of recruitment and selection process for Baristas would be C.V. and subsequent interview as managers in Cutbacks at a local level have a clear idea of their local customer demographic and demand and thus potential applications who submit a C.V. can be easily screened for desirable and essential skills and attributes. The manager can then interview potential applications before making a decision on selection.
An interview has further benefits as it allows the manager to identify the personal attributes and characteristics of the application in order to assess how the application loud fit within the existing team, as much of the Cutbacks ethos and working model requires a high level of teamwork. Potential questions which might be asked at interview for the Barista would include asking the application to describe their retail experiences to date and getting them to explain how these experiences have relevance at Cutbacks. This would test for depth of experience and also organizational fit in terms Of focus on the customer experience.
Other technical questions might relate to Food safety and handling in order to ensure that the application understands he critical importance of this when delivering an exceptional customer experience. From a regulatory perspective the manager conducting the interview must be sure not to inadvertently discriminate against any potential applications during any stage of the recruitment and selection process. Therefore all applications must be asked identical questions and none should relate to issues of gender, age, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation.
In short, Cutbacks is proud of its heritage as an equal opportunities employer. During the recruitment process potential applications must be offered full opportunity to sky their own questions in order to ensure that they fully appreciate the nature of the role which they may be committing to. Task 2 – Building Winning Teams One of the foremost scholars of team building, Meredith Beeline, identified that in order to function effectively an organizational team requires members with different skills and attributes.
In her research she identified that there are nine alternative “team roles” as she described them (see Appendix for full details). Beeline observed that the most effective teams possessed at least 5 and ideally 7 of the roles, and that an individual member within a team was palpable of fulfilling more than one role, but rarely more than two. TCPMAN established that when people are first brought together in a team they experience various stages of team development, popularly referred to as “forming, morning, storming and performing”. This concept is reflected in Figure 2 overleaf.
In short, the theory holds that as employee are brought together in a group they experience an evolutionary process whereby they come to understand and appreciate one another’s skills and strengths and then utilities these complementary skills for the best advantage of the team as a whole. History has shown that Dustman’s theory has almost universal application, however, when used in combination with Bellini’s theory it becomes even more powerful as it becomes possible to identify in advance whether or not a group likely to succeed based on the unique skills and attributes of each team member.
For example, if there are too many “plants” within a group then it is likely that the group will be highly creative but the ideas will rarely be translated into action. Similarly, too many co-ordinations is likely to result in arguments as the co-ordination role is known to be quite stubborn and even manipulative. When applying these theories and concepts to teams at Cutbacks it can be observed that different skills are required for different parts of the operation. Holistic observation of a team working at Cutbacks demonstrates the power of team working.
Each person has a defined role which they focus upon in order to ensure maximum efficiency and quality of output. For example in any Cutbacks outlet one person focuses on taking orders and payments, another one or two (depending on the size of the outlet) focus on making the orders and a further team members is constantly ensuring that the outlet is lean and tidy and well stocked. It can be suggested that this requires a high level of group communication and co-ordination and also a high level of trust as those baristas making the coffee must take on trust the orders given to them by their colleagues.
Similarly because ;o Baristas can work on the same order simultaneously there must be complete understanding and uniformity to the order production process such that they can interchange their roles at any point. Under Dustman’s model it is clear that a team in Cutbacks is at the very least in the “morning” stage of the model and most robbery at the “performing” stage. The concept Of team work within organizations has gained increasing prominence in recent years and with good reason as highly effective teams are more efficient and productive.
Furthermore, Armstrong identifies the benefits of empowering team members within a role so that they feel more engaged with the organization and therefore more committed to delivering the best possible experience for the customer or client. At Cutbacks one means of achieving this would be to ensure that every team member is fully cross-functional and that they are given stretch performance targets which quire them to work as a team. Full cross-functionality means that each team member has an appreciation for other roles and therefore they tend to be more considerate of outcomes.
Moreover, a cross -functional team which has accountability for its own results will typically find more effective means of delivering a service in order to reach targets. Armstrong also discusses how increased responsibility and accountability increase engagement which in turn increases motivation. Some HARM scholars regard the relationship between engagement and motivation as symbiotic, but there is little doubt hat engagement and motivation are strong indicators of a high performance team that is committed to exceed expectation and delivering exceptional service.
Furthermore, research by Saunders demonstrates that highly engaged teams have lower levels of staff churn. This point is useful as it is closely correlated to the previously discussed matter of recruitment and retention, and thus if the right people are brought into the organization and they are motivated to stay because they feel the business (for whatever reason) is a good fit for them, then there is reduced churn, increased engagement and greater productivity. In summation, engaged team members are more profitable for the business and thus it becomes a mutually beneficial relationship.
Task 3 – Leadership & Motivation There is a vast amount of literature and research which embraces the topic of leadership; furthermore, leadership theories have experienced a considerable amount of transition over time as societal perceptions of leadership have changed. Leadership has been defined by McGuire and Moldable as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task”. Theories of leadership range for discussions as to the traits of leaders their styles of leadership and transactional and transformational theories of leadership.
One of the most popular theories used to explain leadership style is the Managerial Grid as developed by Blake and Mouton and shown in figure 3 below:- As can be seen in the figure, the Managerial Grid examines the prevailing managerial technique of leaders within an organization in Order to identify their preferred style. In ideal circumstances Blake and Mouton believe that a manager and leader should adopt a team style which is participative and empowering and allows the employees of the organization to make their own decisions within the remit of the organization’s objectives.
It can be suggested that the concepts of the Managerial Grid share some parallels with the discussions as to transformational and transactional leadership whereby Burns argues that in the longer term transformation leadership is far more effective because it empowers employees to deliver the best possible performance as they have accountability for their own daily working lives. It is evident that there are close linkages between leadership and motivation insofar as good leaders motivate their employees and team members to succeed through a combination of techniques such as engagement, empowerment and delegation of power.
Armstrong and Cheese et al believe that the use of these techniques in conjunction with other factors such as employee voice ensure that individual employees align their personal aims and objectives with those of the organization and therefore voluntarily strive to ensure that the service provided by the organization is a success. It should also be acknowledge that several scholars perceive there is a difference between a manager and a leader within an organization. The distinction is subtle and relates to the fact that managers generally focus on day to day operational tasks and leaders tend to occupy a more strategic role.
However the distinction is certainly not clear cut and considerable debate still centers on this division of roles. Furthermore a leader can also be a manager by dint of their role within the organization, and thus leadership tends to be regarded as a personality trait as opposed to an organizational position. In short, a leader tends to be more effective at motivating and inspiring employees because of their ability to engage them and encourage them to trivet for enhanced performance. In times of change and development, and also in times of difficult circumstances such as recession, leadership and talent management skills are highly valued.
In application to Cutbacks it should be observed that in times of recession when consumers tend to cut back on luxuries such as coffee from coffee shops, Cutbacks must strive to offer improved service to customers in order to retain them. The managers (and ideally leaders) of Cutbacks must also continually strive to motivate Baristas to deliver exceptional service even when customers become more demanding. This concept is closely correlated with that change management and goal setting whereby engaging Baristas with the process can ensure that they feel empowered to respond to the challenge and that they have responsibility for it.
At a local level this may mean running small promotions which would suit the customer demographic in order to attract and retain more customers. Furthermore, if Cutbacks wish to retain their employees it is prudent to continue to invest in training and development in order to ensure that they are highly skilled and capable of responding rapidly to changes in customer demand. This might include job exchanges with Baristas from other retail outlets in order to share best practice, or creating a forum where Baristas can put forward their suggestions for improvement.
Although these are relatively small steps they can help individual Baristas to progress within Cutbacks and this ensures that Cutbacks generates a reputation as an employer of choice which fosters home grown talent and treats employees with fairness and respect. Research into the prevailing management style at Cutbacks reveals that they have a relatively flat hierarchy which ensures that it is easy to assassinate information widely and effectively within the organization.
Cutbacks has a clear mission “to inspire and nurture the human spirit -?? one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time” and this is fully evidenced in their training policies and ethos.